HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPEVINE: OUR NEW ABNORMAL

Business start-up’s are not in themselves, rarities. Every business had their start-up period; when odds are stacked against their survival, and it’s touch-and-go as to whether they’ll live to see long, fruitful years of existence. At times, the business premise may be ahead of its time, and the succeeding copycats are the ones that thrive. And then there are those moments of business “kismet,” when all the stars of fortune are aligned, and the venture takes off.
What is more a rarity is to find an individual who has informally been called the King of Start-Up’s. He or she is the one described as a visionary, an outlier, the one who “disrupts”; and it’s his record and run of successful start-up’s that becomes the aura, the legend, that precedes him. Whether he purposely sought out that moniker or not, here in the Philippines, Brian Cu holds that title.
Instrumental in the successful start-up’s of brands such as GRAB Philippines, Zalora, and Gojek; the new “baby” of Brian, one that he co-founded with his wife Kate, is SariSuki. SariSuki is meant to be a game-changer, as it seeks to help correct what Brian refers to as “our agriculture system, that is essentially broken”. The vision of SariSuki is to help our one million farmers provide food supply that is priced correctly, while building up a network of 500,000 new entrepreneurs over a five-year period. *Brian Cu during the formal launch of SariSuki.*

For Brian, the business can be part of the fight against malnutrition that President Bongbong Marcos has declared as a top priority of his administration. It’s quality food products at wet market prices; and it’s income opportunity for those who’ll sign up to join the network. The two big factors that should make budding entrepreneurs sit up is that one doesn’t need to keep inventory, and a short line of credit will be made available to the seller.
What makes Brian excited about SariSuki is that it’s not just about “consumer consumables,” but also about applying software and service as a solution to something that’s in dire need of fixing. It’s the social impact that redounds both to the farmers, and to the network of budding home entrepreneurs, that imbues Brian’s vision with so much promise. After seeing the effects of the Covid-health crisis; Brian would like SariSuki to be part of a systemic response - to the creation of an environment where as long as you’re willing, honest, and dedicated, the capability to earn money is within everyone’s reach.
Brian enumerates what he perceives are the four main issues with our present agriculture system. First, there’s a supply chain problem. Then, there’s a cost per yield problem, where farmer education is needed. Third, there’s the issue of making the land more productive - for example, from two harvests a year, to 2 1/2. Then, there’s the issue of how there’s not enough money to plant all the hectares a farmer may be in possession of. For three of the above issues, Brian calls for a playbook for standardization. He cites the “growing pains” example of how SariSuki worked with farmers in the north for carrots, and there would be such wide divergences on the financial aid requested by farmers for plots of land that were equal in size.
He’d like to develop a system where what to be planted vis-a-vis demand can be plotted out so farmers are more strategic, taking into consideration whether they’re highland or lowland farmers. He’d like to create “teams” of farmers based on locality - similar to what he did with Grab drivers in his “former life.” It’s about motivating and incentivizing via a team bonus. There are plots of land in Laguna and in Nueva Ecija where he hopes to use this standardized playbook, and offer the team concept. *As part of his SariSuki operational duties, Brian personally meets with the farmers on a regular basis.*

As for the Mr. Start-Up appellation, Brian smiles and mentions that he has had his share of failures. For one, there was an e-commerce site for babies, from apparel to all types of consumer products related to baby care. That no one talks about it, is indicative of how it never took off. Quietly, Brian reveals that he hopes this SariSuki is the one for keeps, the one that he hopes to leave as his lasting legacy. There’s the humility to recognize that one can’t always be playing high stakes ‘games’; and that while he has the operational background, it’s his penchant for big dreams that has kept him going.
He admits that his work-life balance has taken a hit over the years. He makes it a point to always drive his three children to school (Kate and Brian have a 10, 8, and 3-year old), no matter how busy he is. But he acknowledges that at this point in his life, he’d like to make family a stronger priority, and increase the amount of quality time he can spend with his wife and children.
If there is a takeaway from this column, it would be that the king of Start-Ups has evolved. For Brian, it’s not just business sense that rules, but business vision coupled with being impactful to society. It’s where CSR is part of the business’ DNA, and not just an adjunct to its operations.